October is Nia’s birthday month, so to celebrate her 11th bday, we invited her cousin Armin and grandparents to come stay with us for five days. It was such a fun couple days. We had the most glorious fall weather and took full advantage by being outside as much as we could. We returned to the same pumpkin patch we’d gone to in 2015 when Armin was last in DC visiting us.
Look how much the kids have changed since–they were so very tiny!
The slides were a huge hit, as were the apple donuts and cold-pressed cider. I can’t even put into words how much I’d missed the fall season and all the beauty and fun traditions associated with it. Made my MN girl heart happy.
Nia had a hard time narrowing which sites she wanted to take her cousin too. Eventually she settled on the Natural History Museum so they could see rocks, gems, dinos and animals; and the Air & Space Museum, which was newly renovated and had just reopened. I think it was a toss-up as to which one they liked more.
On Nia’s actual birthday, we ventured South to Mount Vernon to wander the estate and partake in a fall festival going on there. I hadn’t visited since I was a teenager and boy had I misremembered it. The house was much smaller than I recalled and the grounds far more vast. The kids loved the personal audio guides and hunted relentlessly to make sure they didn’t miss a single information spot. It was really sweet.
Nia picked pizza for her birthday dinner (no surprise there) and insisted on enjoying it out on the deck. In lieu of cake she picked brownie sundaes, which were a delightful change up.
Shortly after our houseguests departed, we shifted our focus to Halloween. Nia had big plans to be a Spartan Warrior. She insisted her costume be homemade, no shortcuts for us. So down we went to the dumpster to rummage around for large pieces of cardboard to create this elaborate costume.
We ended up ordering gold contact paper to put over the cardboard. Worked pretty well. There were four components she wanted: a front and back breastplate, shin guards, a shield, and a helmet. We eventually abandoned ship on making a helmet out of cardboard–too tricky–and found a good one on Amazon that we added feather plumage too.
We were fortunate to get tickets to Boo at the Zoo, a trick or treating event at D.C.’s National Zoo. It’s a great event that was made even better by the companionship of her two good school friends. It’s a good thing we had that on the calendar because we ended up bailing on actual Halloween night trick or treating due to drizzly weather and me coming down with a cold. I leave you with this one awesome last picture of Nia riding the carousel in her full Spartan regalia. Hope your October was equally awesome!
